BEAUMONT  , a

city and the county-seat of Jefferson county, Texas, U.S.A., situated on the Neches river, in the E. part of the state, about 28 M. from the Gulf of Mexico and 72 M . N.E. of Galveston . Pop . (189o) 3296; (1900) 9427, of whom 2953 were negroes; (1910, census) 20,640 . It is served by the Gulf & Interstate, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, the Kansas City Southern, the Texas & New Orleans, the Colorado Southern, New Orleans & Pacific, the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western (from Beaumont to Sour Lake, Tex.), and the (short) Galveston, Beaumont & North-Eastern railways . The Neches river from Beaumont to its mouth has a depth of not less than 19 ft.; from its mouth extends a canal (9 ft. deep, roo ft.wide, and 12 M. long), which connects with the Port Arthur Canal (18o ft. wide and 25 ft. deep) extending to the sea . Situated in the midst of a region covered with dense forests of pine and cypress, Beaumont is one of the largest lumber centres of the southern states; it is also the centre of a large rice-growing region . The manufactories include rice mills, saw mills, sash, door and blind factories, shingle mills, iron works, oil refineries, broom factories and a dynamite factory . In 1905 the cleaning and polishing of rice was the most important industry, its output being valued at $1,203,123, being nearly twice the value of the product of the rice mills of the city in 1900, 25.9 % of the total value of the state's product of polished and cleaned rice, 46.1% of the value($2,609,829) of all of Beaumont's factory products, and about 7'4 % of the value of the product of polished and cleaned rice for the whole United States in 1905 . After the sinking of oil wells in 1901, Beaumont became one of the principal oil-producing places in the United States; its oil refineries are connected by pipe lines with the surrounding oil fields, and two 6-in. pipe lines extend from Beaumont to Oklahoma . Beaumont was first settled in 1828, and was first chartered as a city in 1899 .